1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscopic surgical procedure and surgical apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, endoscopic surgeries, such as cholecystectomy have been used, in which the inside of a body cavity is observed by an endoscope, internal organs are operated by treatment instruments or the like, and operations are performed. In such endoscopic surgeries, it is important to displace internal organs which are not related to the observation or the operation and assure a field of view and operative field by enlarging a narrow cavity. However, these are not big issues in general abdominal operations.
Specifically, the operations performed are namely; moving a body tissue or an internal organ located above observation or operation target with grasping forceps; slightly moving the internal organ or the like, which is not under observation or the operation target, during operations, with grasping forceps or the like; moving the internal organ or the like, which is not under observation or the operation target, with another grasping forceps or the like.
On these occasions, there are issues that the body tissue or the internal organ, which are not target of a treatment or the like, might be damaged. Also, a plurality of grasping forceps or the like is necessary for moving the body tissue or the internal organ, which is not target of a treatment or the like. Accordingly, other holes are necessary for inserting the grasping forceps or the like into the body, whereby there are issues of increasing the invasiveness of a patient.
As an apparatus for handling these issues, an instrument having an axis body, a hollow tube provided in a revolvable manner around the axis body, and a plurality of elastic striatums, one end of which being fixed to the axis body and the other end of which being fixed to the hollow tube, is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H08-336538. The apparatus proposed in the publication is able to select from a stored state in which the elastic striatum is constricted and an operation state in which the elastic striatum is enlarged by allowing the axis body and the hollow tube to rotate relatively. By selecting the operation state in which the elastic striatum is enlarged, it is possible to support the body tissue or the internal organ.